Tag Archives: Erdem

Erdem Moralioglu, a world-renowned London designer, has tried his hand at making a collaboration with retail giant H&M. But with Moralioglu’s collection seeming different than most collaboration among other designers and brands.

When designers tag team with brands to create a collaboration line, they don’t really hold up to the expectations many people thought they would. With a lot of the collaborations seeming like a knock-off of the designer’s original line and seemingly being priced higher than normal clothes at the brand’s stores, Erdem Moralioglu decided to finally change the ongoing cycle.

Erdem Moralioglu created a London-based label which was founded in 2005. Moralioglu graduated from Royal College of Art began his career interning for Vivienne Westwood and Diane von Furstenberg. His portfolio has blown up in the past couple years, thanks to his famous fans who often wear his signature floral prints. The group of fans includes: Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton, Nicole Kidman, Cate Blanchett, Kristen Dunst, Kate Bosworth, Kate Mara, and Meghan Markle.

“When you hear about these collaborations, it’s often something that’s ‘a lesser version of’,” he says.

“It was about creating pieces that have a permanence to them and doing the opposite of something that feels like ‘fast fashion’.”

Moralioglu, who is now 40 years old, has created an accessible and affordable line with one of the leading fast fashion brands in the world. But unlike most fast fashion, his collection is filled with timeless silhouettes, luxe fabrics and superb tailoring to make his clothes last years. Moralioglu has said that he believes his pieces from this collection can be worn for 10 to 20 years and are adaptable enough to be mix and matched.

Moralioglu’s new collection even something he usually isn’t known to do, menswear. The menswear collection will include T-shirts, hoodies, a backpack, and sneakers engraved with his name. Moralioglu’s says his collection with H&M is his cure to disposable fashion. Moralioglu is most notably known for his ultra-feminine dresses and bold floral prints.

“Creating these pieces that have an odd classicism to them is almost disruptive to the idea of ‘Let’s consume it, let’s buy it, let’s wear it for a bit and let’s discard it,'” he says.

Moralioglu has said in an interview with straitstimes.com, he got his inspiration for the collection from a music video for a 1990 Pet Shop Boys song, Being Boring, that he first saw in high school.

The video is set “in this old English country house with young people inhabiting it – girls in bias-cut dresses wearing sneakers and boys in tuxedos with T-shirts. And there was something so democratic and inclusive about this idea of formal and informal and having something that would be amazing for someone who’s 16 or 75,” he adds.

The designer also took inspiration from his childhood memories, in which his time was split between Montreal, Canada, and Birmingham, England.

“I wanted to work with Harris tweed in Scotland and create a perfect tweed suit, and have the jacket sold separately from the trousers so a man could wear it almost like a jean jacket or as part of a suit.”

The designer says he did this collection the same way as he does with his main line. He starts with “the idea of character and narrative” for inspiration then he pays incredible detail the workmanship. Ms Ann-Sofie Johansson, H&M’s creative advisor believes the line has the capacity to stay around a while and even reveals the company has learned a couple things from working alongside Moralioglu.

“His clothes have longevity. These are precious things you can save in the wardrobe and take out over and over again,” Ms. Johansson says.